This Kind of Time

[HKHaugan]

This is the kind of time when we ask what is God’s will for me?  Jesus said that His food was to do the will of His Father.  That will was being obedient to the principles of the Word in any and all situations.  Why?  Because in our limited humanity we can’t predict what every next moment will bring.  Therefore as we pray and call on His name we depend on the Holy Spirit dwelling within to guide our thoughts, our attitude and our action which are guided by our belief, our trust and our faith, in that order.  What we believe in our mind about God the Father shapes our heart as we trust in His Son Jesus who then through the Holy Spirit motivates our faith to act.  This is how a disciple of Jesus counts to three before any action is taken.  It is necessary to believe as Jesus believed, to trust as Jesus trusted and to act as Jesus acted.   Because Jesus was God the Son He was perfect in each situation in every next moment.  Scripture tells us He knew the minds of men, who and who not to trust.  He knew the circumstances that would challenge Him and to trust the Spirit whenever. 

 

Never put the Lord Jesus in a box in which we think we have Him figured out so that we can justify ourselves.  If we stick to His Word He will do whatever is necessary to right where we are.  This means we don’t limit Him to act within our time schedule nor even within our lifetime.  His purposes involve the whole universe and all of humanity past, present and future. 

 

This does not mean we are just specks on the windshield of existence.  Rather, each of us is personal and special to Him.  He has made each of us to reflect His glory and that glory transcends time which make us eternally significant and time as we see it is the speck not us.  Our part in eternity is written already and what we do as we believe, trust and act is our eternal effect on a temporary world.  In Jesus we are writing spiritual history with every next moment’s response.  His will is being written through each of us in our being His disciples.  What may seem like centuries to us is momentary in His eternal work.  He is always in the present and always working.

 

We are believers, we are members of the Body and we are citizens in a particular place in the world.  We yield before God, we live our gifts in the Body and we play out our responsibility as citizens.  So three things make our lives part of this eternal faith movement, repentance, prayer and obedience.  Live a lifestyle of repentance which means turning from self-concerns to His presence, keeping an awareness of His Spirit guiding us through His Word and acting with His attitude as our motivation.  This is the will of God--- our food, our sustenance and our strength.